Angry Birds to surpass 100 million downloads

The world’s hatred of pigs has never been greater. At the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, Angry Birds developer Rovio announced that the hit smartphone game will surpass 100 million downloads in the imminent future, reports Develop. Speaking at the conference, executive Peter Vesterbaka thanked the iPhone for making its success possible.

“We really have to thank Apple for changing our business,” said Vesterbaka. “The iPhone got us all away from the old carrier-led, soviet style gaming model. The focus these days is that developers just have to make good games – that’s the legacy of the App Store.”

Vesterbaka continued, painting a very positive picture of the mobile games industry. “These days developers port mobile games to consoles. That used to be the other way around. And today a lot of companies that take whatever console game IP they have and put it on mobile. That model doesn’t always work.”

Since launching on the iPhone, the game has been ported to Android devices as well. Versions of the game are in the works for major video game consoles and handhelds as well.

Earned success

More astonishing than the fact that Angry Birds is (or already has) breached 100 million downloads is the speed at which is has accomplished this feat: about a year. The game launched on the iPhone in Dec. 2009. While most of its success can be pinned to strong gameplay and its fun theme, Rovio has worked harder than most developers to continue to introduce new Angry Birds content throughout 2010. Halloween and Christmas versions of the game were released and a special Rio version is being planned for March as is a St. Patricks Day edition.

Can Angry Birds reach 200 million? We’ll have to wait and see, but Rovio’s head is definitely in the right place.

Earned success

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